The so-called Trend Night… well, if one was being generous, it could barely be considered an awards ceremony.
But everyone knew what it really existed for: attention.
When Nadia mentioned it, Alex took out his phone and looked it up. The result nearly made him laugh. There were almost thirty award categories. And according to what people were saying, this year had already been "toned down"; in previous years, there had been more than forty.
Forty.
Anyone who didn't know better would think they were dividing loot after a robbery.
When Alex attended actual film or television award ceremonies, he would at least consider whether he had a chance of winning something. If he knew there was no award waiting for him, he usually couldn't be bothered to show up. What was the point? Wasting time watching other people walk onstage while he pretended to be polite?
But this kind of event was different.
If he didn't leave with at least a few trophies under his arm, Alex felt like he might as well twist his own forehead off from embarrassment.
That was exactly why so many manufactured idols and pretty-faced traffic stars loved these events. With a little luck - or, more honestly, enough online traffic - they could always scrape together some kind of award. After all, it wasn't as if they could win anything serious. The humiliating precedent of a certain overhyped heartthrob trying to force prestige where there was only marketing was still fresh in everyone's mind.
Alex thought about it for a while and decided to go.
In the end, Penguin Media was one of the investors too. And since Penguin's boss, one of the fattest sheep Alex had been shearing lately, had already spoken up, some face had to be given.
A few days later, on the way to the cultural center where Trend Night was being held, Nadia explained that this year's edition had been organized on a fairly grand scale. It wasn't just about the winners. The list of invited celebrity guests alone already passed one hundred names and was approaching two hundred.
Alex didn't even know what to say.
The entertainment industry wasn't small, but it wasn't an endless ocean either. If they gathered every artist with some relevance up to the third tier, could they really find two hundred people the public would recognize?
Thinking about it carefully, if you grabbed an average webnovel reader and asked them to name twenty celebrities off the top of their head, Alex seriously doubted many could do it. There was a reason so many authors always wrote about names like Emily, Rebeca Verne, and Bella. It wasn't a lack of imagination. It was fear that readers simply wouldn't know who anyone else was.
"Boss, wait in the car for a bit. I'll go talk to the organizers about the red carpet."
Black, who was driving, suddenly spoke. Then he quickly got out of the car, ready to negotiate with the event staff.
Or rather, ready to fight for the final entrance slot.
Yes, the order of appearance on the red carpet mattered. Even if Alex personally didn't care, his team couldn't just ignore it. Not because it had any real practical use, but because it was a symbol of status. It was the same logic as a corporate meeting: no one needed to explain why the chairman sat at the head of the table.
Alex had no interest in waking up the next day to headlines claiming some internet pretty boy had "outshone" him.
In theory, this kind of negotiation should have been handled by Nadia, his assistant. Unfortunately, the girl was too beautiful and too thin-skinned for this kind of confrontation. Serving tea and eating popsicles were no problem for her, but stepping into the arena to argue with veteran managers and agents? That still had to be left to Black, his former manager.
Backstage, the atmosphere was already on the verge of catching fire.
"Of course the finale belongs to our Logan!"
"Based on what? The millions of bot followers you bought?"
"Watch your mouth! As if your Sean never inflated his numbers!"
"Everyone here, please give our Kain some consideration."
The agents of several traffic idols kept arguing without end, each one trying to push their artist into the most prestigious position. The organizers were close to losing their minds. In situations like this, even preparing the entrance order in advance was useless. If a celebrity simply parked their car at the entrance and refused to get out, what could anyone do? Drag them out by the arm?
Naturally, Black didn't join the battlefield. He simply walked over calmly, as if entering a quiet room, and spoke with absolute serenity.
"Mr. Alex has arrived."
The agents froze for a fraction of a second.
Mr. Alex? Which Alex?
To be fair, there weren't that many names with that kind of weight among top-tier artists. Even so, one of the managers, perhaps too fired up from arguing, opened his mouth without thinking.
"Which Alex? Does he think he can compete with our - "
Before he could finish, Black added lightly, in the same calm tone:
"Lord Sosuke Aizen has arrived."
Fortunately, Alex didn't hear that. Being called that in real life was far too embarrassing.
But the effect was immediate.
The face of the manager who had been about to snap back stiffened, as though he had just swallowed something foul. Fine, maybe someone could fail to recognize the name Alex immediately, but Sosuke Aizen? Impossible.
"S-sorry, sir. I didn't know…"
The agent's voice lost all its force. Anyone working in this industry understood Alex's temperament very well. He was not the type to forget an offense. On the contrary, he remembered. He waited. And when he moved, he did it with precision.
Maybe some people still thought, "So what? I just won't act in Alex's dramas."
Naive.
If Alex truly decided to target someone, all he had to do was release his own productions during the exact same period as theirs. Once, twice in a row, and that person's career would probably be crushed before they even understood what had happened.
Even a powerful comedian from an entirely different lane had once delayed his film release by a full month to avoid the sharp edge of Bleach. And these traffic idols thought they were anything special?
Faced with the other side's surrender, Black didn't bother prolonging the conversation. He turned and walked back.
The truth, however, was that inside, he was practically bursting with satisfaction.
Damn, that felt good.
Now he understood why the boss loved playing arrogant, domineering characters so much.
Not long after, Alex stepped out of the car and onto the red carpet.
The funniest part was noticing that the three idols walking ahead of him - Kain, Sean, and Logan - seemed to have slightly shaky legs. They had probably already heard from their agents what had just happened backstage.
The corner of Alex's mouth lifted slightly. For one brief second, his face carried the calm contempt of someone looking down at the world from above.
What he didn't expect was that this single second would be captured by the photographers outside the red carpet.
And shortly afterward, the entire internet turned it into memes and GIFs.
That was why public expression management mattered at all times. Otherwise, one only needed to look at Kana Hanazawa. A lovely girl with a sweet appearance, yet because of one expression caught at the wrong moment, she became so marked by it that whenever she appeared in front of cameras afterward, she seemed afraid to smile freely.
When people realized that the woman walking the red carpet with Alex that night was not Emily, nor another established star, but Nadia - the assistant who had been working beside him for more than half a year - many immediately understood.
Another girl was about to take off.
Ever since Nadia made a cameo in the finale of Bleach as Karin Kurosaki, Alex had already started planning to officially put her into productions. After all, the girl had given him something important several months ago. It would be unreasonable not to compensate her at all.
Alex had principles.
At least some.
"Nadia, you're going to become famous."
Talita, the former junior talent from Aurora Entertainment, known for her legally adult doll-like appearance, sat beside her and spoke in a clearly sour tone.
After all, Nadia had only worked as an assistant for half a year and had already latched onto Alex's golden thigh. Why hadn't she thought of that back then?
"Not at all. Who can predict the future?"
Nadia replied with carefully rehearsed modesty.
But anyone who wasn't blind could see the pride hidden in her eyes. She was trying to restrain herself, but the satisfaction still leaked out around the edges, shining almost shamelessly.
"I'm thinking about terminating my contract with Aurora. When you start filming, I can become Director Alex's assistant in your place, right? Nadia, can you recommend me?"
Talita spoke with renewed fighting spirit, as if she had just discovered the true path to an artistic career.
Nadia fell silent.
She decided to play dead.
So that was it? This girl had been waiting precisely for this opportunity?
Not far away, Mark heard the conversation between the two girls and felt cold sweat run down his back.
Damn. Had Alex become addicted to digging talent out of Aurora Entertainment?
Fortunately, at that moment, the awards ceremony officially began.
Trend Night's influence truly wasn't small. The host invited for the event came directly from the national broadcaster's main lineup, a top-tier anchor named Nick Maxwell.
To be honest, Alex felt a little regret that it wasn't Martha Vance. As for Wendy Bell? Sorry, but in the webnovel universe, she had already passed her peak long ago.
The ceremony moved quickly, and soon Nick Maxwell called Alex's name.
The first time Alex went onstage, he improvised a couple of acceptance lines. The second time, he still managed to come up with something decent, maintaining that relaxed air of someone prepared for anything.
But by the third time, he was momentarily left speechless.
After all, he had barely been offstage for five minutes.
Fortunately, Nick Maxwell's professionalism was solid. Seeing the pause, he immediately threw out a topic to fill the space.
"Director Alex, is your next work after Bleach already ready to begin?"
The moment the question landed, more than a hundred celebrities in the hall widened their eyes at the same time.
In that instant, the air itself seemed to change.
Because everyone present understood one brutal truth with perfect clarity: a new work from Alex was not merely a production.
It was an opportunity.
And for many of them, it might be the only real chance to cross the distance between being seen and being remembered.
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